Tatshenshini-Alsek Park is iconic Canadian wilderness. It’s rugged, remote, and truly remarkable. Perched on a confluence of borders—BC, Yukon, and Alaska—the park is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the largest protected natural area in the world.

If you go down to the Suskwa River where it passes through a tight canyon some four and a half kilometres above its confluence with the Bulkley, you will discover the remains of a very old bridge, an airy span built from nothing but telegraph wire and wood.

A boxy, renovated two-story fire lookout sticks up on a knob on the north side of Hankin Peak, with fine views of Rocky Ridge and the Kitseguecla River valley, as well as Ashman Ridge and Paleo Peak to the west.

The alpine ridge that I was introduced to as “Moonlight Mountain” is a spur of the larger Kispiox Mountain, an arm flung out first north and then northwest to enclose the headwaters of one of the tributaries of Moonlit Creek.

Simon McGillivray, a trader for the Hudson’s Bay Company, was the first outsider ever to visit “the Forks,” the place where the Skeena and Bulkley rivers join, and later the site of the town of Hazelton

A plywood cabin tucked above an alpine lake sheltered by Robinson Ridge lures me away from the warmth of my home and laughter of my family. I gather my gear. My dogs wiggle, their noses nudge. I leave Terrace and drive south along Highway 37 towards Kitimat. The dogs’ noses press against one window and then the next, in anticipation. South of Hirsch Creek Bridge—57.5 km from Terrace and just one-half km before Kitimat—I take the first left onto Forest Avenue.